


when im alone id rather be with you

by iktwabrokenbone (apiculteur)



Category: Bandom, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Dom/sub Undertones, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Makeup, Misunderstandings, One Night Stands, Sharing Clothes, like no real sex but its talked abt a lot n josh is A Sub, tyler is a locally famous dancer (ballet n tap) n josh is fuckin downnnn for that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 02:17:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8603323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apiculteur/pseuds/iktwabrokenbone
Summary: “I forgot to get his number. He was like, a real-life sex god, and this alarm went on his phone and he had to rush out, and I totally forgot to get his number. He told me to text him! It was going so well,” he groaned, and Jenna sighed.





	

**Author's Note:**

> hello my friends i have returned to joshler after 47 years. pls note ive given up w capitalising titles. aLso this is basically an 'i have so many long fics planned/half written i need a break n smth to post'
> 
> defo not inspired by me crying over a cute af boy i kno who dances n wore MFKN MAKEUP (which is my WEAKNESS) n essentially killed my homosexual ass when he lifted like 47 ppl bc hes like so strong??? FUCK i love men im sobbing

Josh woke up and decided that he had fallen in love with the hot piece of ass who was still asleep next to him.

Well, maybe not really in love, but _God_ , he was hot. In the past, Josh had tried being dominant, and it had been fine, he had enjoyed it plenty, but when Josh was the one being dominated? He went weak at the knees. The guy- Tyler, if he’d been moaning the right name- was a blessing. Not the usual tall, muscled jock that he tended to go for, but with all the underlying strength, confidence, and power.

And it turned out he wasn’t just hot, he was beautiful, too. Because Josh was in luck, and the guy had this precious, soft smile on his face as he slept, and Josh wished it would be appropriate to kiss him, but his mouth tasted horrible, and he had been a quick lay. After getting two orgasms and plenty of hickies from the guy, it had only been polite to allow him to stay the night if he wanted, though Josh felt pretty sure the guy had only stayed because he was exhausted. Josh was.

Tyler woke up as Josh tried to slip out of bed, and Josh smiled at him apologetically, pulling on some underwear. Casual nudity was somehow more intimate than sex. “Didn’t mean to wake you,” he said, rolling back his shoulders and cracking his spine. Tyler looked content, snuggled into the covers, but trying to keep his eyes open.

“‘S fine,” he slurred, and Josh couldn’t help but smile at him. The regular policy was to keep one night stands as one night stands, but when Tyler was both cute and attractive as Hell, Josh felt like he could get away with slipping him his number.

“Want me to make you breakfast?” he asked, because all of his unabashed staring was beginning to make him feel like he was taking some sort of advantage of him.

Josh clearly saw him perk up before shaking his head. “Don’t wanna trouble you.”

“I’m making myself breakfast anyway, I don’t mind,” he insisted, and after some unintelligible groaning from Tyler, he said, “I’ll make enough for two, if you don’t want it I’ll just put it in the fridge.” He left the room before he got a response, and brushed his teeth before he started frying up eggs and bacon.

He could hear Tyler getting dressed in the room next to him, so he slipped out his phone and sent Jenna a quick text saying, _‘lit the most attractive man ive ever met is in my apartment n im gonna try get his number before he leaves wish me luck’_. He got a row of thumbs-up emojis back within seconds, which was exactly why he loved Jenna.

The guy walked into his room, fully clothed, a moment later, and hide a yawn behind the back of his palm. “Hey, thanks so much dude. Don’t usually get breakfast made for me,” he said, and Josh tried not to feel too smug that the guy was struggling to keep his eyes on Josh’s face, always drifting down to his abs or his ass or his arms.

“No problem man,” he said, and moved to turn on the coffee machine as the food fried away. “I mean, I had a pretty great time, and you seem like a cool dude.” Both true. Being dominated, even only mildly, tended to be intimidating with a stranger. He had been careful with Josh, didn’t assume that his muscles meant he could handle whatever Tyler wanted to give him. He made sure to ask, gave Josh a safeword as soon as they stopped being so vanilla, and damn, he had a mouth on him.

Tyler smirked, looking less like the polite and maybe slightly nervous guy he seemed to be outside of sex. “Good, I had a pretty great time, too,” he said, and yeah, Josh would definitely drop straight back down to his knees as soon as he said the word.

Josh pointed to the cupboard with his mugs in. “You can pour yourself some coffee, if you want,” he said, because he couldn’t think when Tyler was staring at him like that.

Tyler laughed loudly, and it was one of the cutest laughs Josh had heard. As soon as he left, Jenna would be getting subjected to Josh’s whining. “Thanks, Joshie.” He winked, and Josh got the feeling he must be grinning dumbly. Attractive men. Menaces to Josh’s self control, all of them.

Tyler poured them both coffee, and Josh plated up the eggs and bacon. Sharing breakfast with a one night stand was strange, yeah, but he could get used to it with a guy like Tyler. They made bits of conversation, flirted a bit, stared more than would most people would deem appropriate, and Josh let himself think that _the adorable hot guy liked him._

There was a loud sound which made them both jump and stop mid-sentence, and Tyler scrabbled to pull his phone out of his pocket.

“Oh, man, I’m gonna be late!” he muttered, and Josh realised the sound must have been an alarm, and Tyler was gonna leave. “I’m so sorry, I gotta run off, thank you so much for breakfast. Text me?” He looked hopeful, but he was picking up his jacket off the couch and already hovering by the door.

“Yeah, it’s fine, go. I’ll text you,” he agreed, nodding enthusiastically.

“Thanks! See ya,” he called as he ran out the door, and there would not be a single person who would see him without realising that he had banged someone recently. His hair was a fluffy mess and his clothes were wrinkled, and-

Wait. “Crap!” Josh hadn’t gotten his number. Josh had gotten the best screw of his life, let the guy stay over, eaten breakfast and flirted with him, and he had let him leave without swapping numbers. He had panicked when the guy started rushing out and he had forgotten.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and rang Jenna.

“I forgot to get his number. He was like, a real-life sex god, and this alarm went on his phone and he had to rush out, and I totally forgot to get his number. He told me to text him! It was going so well,” he groaned, and Jenna sighed.

“You’re so dumb.”

“Hey! That’s a lie.” He pouted. “And don’t joke about this. I fell in love with that man. I lost my soulmate. We were planning marriage and everything.” All lies, but man, he was beautiful. Josh would have went on a date with him. He would have played video games with him and ended up having so much sex with him. So much amazing sex.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” she deadpanned. “I’m gonna be at the dance studio late, but you can come watch movies with me at, like, seven if you want. To get over this harrowing time.”

Jenna was good with that kind of stuff. Helping to distract him. He wasn’t _really_ heartbroken, because he had known the guy all of twelve hours, during at least half of which they were sleeping, but he was disappointed. It had been too long since his last girlfriend, and he missed the romantic stuff. Kissing and holding hands and dates. Maybe he and Tyler would have had sex another couple times then never spoken again, but they might have been something. They might have gone on dates and gone to aquariums or something. They might have fallen in love.

He agreed to hang out with her, and when they hung up, he forced himself to get dressed and head to work. Sure, he hadn’t spent eight years training to be an architect because he hated it, but he preferred talking to cute boys over most things. He dragged himself into work and complained to half the people he worked with between sketching up designs for a new library.

  


* * *

  


He didn’t stay fixated on Tyler for too long. He let himself have occasional moments of wistful imagining about what might have been, but he didn’t know the guy, and there were enough cute men out there anyway. Maybe not that many cute men with the same carefulness and hidden strength, but he would find someone. He hung out with Jenna and Mark and they pointed out cute people he could flirt with, which was more funny than anything else, because Mark was horrendously heterosexual and had terrible taste in men, and Jenna kept accidentally choosing people who ended up being in a relationship.

Whatever. He stopped thinking about it not long after it happened, it wasn’t like he had ever been destroyed by it.

He was considering whether to watch a film or come up with more ideas for an upcoming project when someone knocked on the door to his apartment and came straight in. Either Jenna or a burglar, but probably Jenna.

“Jenna?” he shouted, and got a, _‘Yeah, it’s me,’_ in return. She sounded like she was in a rush, so he made his way to the sitting room. She was sitting on the couch and pouting.

“Hayley ended up being busy on short notice. One of the dance teachers is ill and there’s a show coming up next week so she got pulled in to lead a rehearsal,” she complained, leaning her head back so she could stare up at Josh.

“Aw, shucks,” he said, sympathetic. The two of them were going to go see a ballet, one with a dancer Jenna liked in it. He wasn’t world-famous or anything, but dancers in Ohio knew him, and he was real good at ballet and tap. She had showed him a clip once or twice before, but Josh didn’t have much of a concept of good and bad when it came to dance, so all he had taken away from it was that guys looked good in tights and makeup.

“I know you don’t understand dance, but do you wanna come? It has hot people dancing in it. Get over that boy,” she said, hopeful. He rolled his eyes at the mention of Tyler, but she was waving a couple of tickets at him, and Josh knew how excited she had been about this.

“Yeah, ‘course,” he agreed, enjoying her smile.

“Thanks, Josh. Love you!” she told him, hopping off the couch. “C’mon, let’s go.”

They got there fifteen minutes before it was scheduled to start, and got into their seats, a few rows from right in front of the stage, a bit to the left but central enough to have a clear view of the whole stage. He felt kind of bad that he was there instead of Hayley, who would have a clue what was happening and appreciate all of the complex moves, but, well, it was better for him to be there than leaving Jenna alone next to an empty seat.

The lights dimmed as the orchestra started playing and a man came out on stage, wearing fitted white tights and a pale pink shirt, and- Josh knew him. That was the guy he had banged, who had left too soon. And he was there, on stage, wearing all his dancer clothes, doing leaps across the stage and stretching right onto the tips of his toes, spinning around and moving fluidly. God, of course. Tyler. Tyler Joseph, one of Jenna’s favourite dancers.

He leaned up to Jenna’s ear and hissed, “I banged him! That’s Tyler.”

She hit his arm and stared at him with wide eyes, then tilted her head towards Tyler to ask, _‘Him? You sure?’_

He nodded, and she whispered back, “I can’t believe you had sex with Tyler Joseph!” There was a hint of betrayal, but it was overwhelmed by the amusement and excitement. She winked at his expression of panic. He would have to suffer through at least an hour of this, plus an interval during which Jenna would never stop alternating between making fun of him and complimenting Tyler’s dances.

In a past life, Josh must have done a lot of bad things to deserve this kind of karma.

As predicted, the interval was mainly Jenna laughing at him and asking if he looked as good in tights as he did in bed, and Josh groaning a lot in response.

“Hey, in all seriousness, you said he liked you, yeah?” she asked, nudging him, and he begrudged a nod. He did _seem_  to like Josh, but maybe he had done all of that on purpose, so Josh would think he was a nice guy and Tyler could get away without having to give out his number.

“So, I don’t know, try get a date with him. Wait for him backstage or something,” she suggested with a shrug.

Josh glared at her and groaned once again. “What if he doesn’t like me? Then I’ll seem like some creepy fan who stalked him.” He sighed deeply and covered his face for a second. “It’s not like much happened between us anyway. It’s fine if we don’t do anything else. He’s just. Real hot. God, he’s so hot.”

Jenna rolled her eyes. She was regularly exhausted by Josh Dun. “Your loss.”

More people were settling back into their seats, and Josh’s stomach went down with the lights. How much longer would he be forced to watch the man of his dreams looking beautiful in close-fitting clothes, bulge visible enough that it was a wonder he wasn’t blushing? And to top it all off, he was _lifting_  people. Spinning around with them above his head, or flipping them over his arms. Heck if Josh knew the plot of the ballet, because he had been focussed on only Tyler the whole way through, but Tyler put emotion into his dance, his expression and his movement.

Josh felt himself grow even more regretful that he hadn’t gotten his number. He would be dead by the end of the performance. By the time the cast was taking their final bows, Josh wasn’t sure if he was more relieved or disappointed.

That was until he saw Tyler’s eyes scan the audience as he smiled out at them, and they landed straight on Josh. For a second, Josh saw his smile falter and slip into shock, and then he grinned wider. God no.

He winked straight at Josh, and- did Josh see him lick his lips? The audience was clapping even more, and Tyler mouthed something, but Josh was terrible at lip reading. Tyler was on stage for another twenty seconds before they all ran off stage, and Josh was screwed.

Jenna hit his arm. “He winked at you! What did he say?” she asked.

“I don’t know, everyone was clapping. I can’t lip read,” he said, staring miserably at the curtain Tyler had ran behind.

They spent a good minute or so stood still, caught between leaving or waiting for Tyler to do something. When most of the theatre had emptied out, all shuffling towards the exit, they shared a glance and began to trail after the last few stragglers. They were feet away from the door when there was a thump and someone shouting, “F-heck!”

Some of the people in front of them checked over their shoulder but carried on their way. Tyler was scrabbling to his feet when Josh caught sight of him.

“Josh! I told you to wait,” he said, panting a bit.

Jenna raised her eyebrows at him, and he blushed.

“I’ll see you later, J,” she told him, and Josh hated her.

Tyler seemed a little embarrassed by the time they were close enough for a conversation.

“Uh. I hope this is fine?” he said, touching his neck with one hand. He must have changed out of his performance outfit, because he was in a black hoodie and jeans instead of the fancy clothes from earlier. With all of the lights up and the distance between them bridged, Josh could see he was wearing makeup. Foundation, pale pink lipstick, mascara and eyeliner. Maybe some highlight and contour? Josh was no expert, but he watched tutorials and let Jenna show herself off to him when she did a particularly good job.

Josh had been stuck on Tyler’s lips for a touch too long. “Yes! This is fine. I meant to get your number the other day,” he said, then added, “You’re wearing makeup.”

Tyler reached to touch his jaw and narrowed his eyes a bit. “Yeah. Wanna look good for shows, y’know. Does it bother you?”

Josh shook his head firmly. “No. No, it’s. I think it’s hot.”

“Oh,” Tyler said, and blinked. Then he put on that smirk. “Yeah? That’s good, because after I get your number, I was hoping you’d come home with me.”

Josh was down for that. Yeah, he was pretty damn down for that. Tyler laughed at what must have been a look of total dumbfounded desperation.

  


* * *

  


“So. I got his number,” he said as soon as Jenna picked up.

“And?”

“And I sucked his dick. And we screwed again. And I’m still at his place right now but he isn’t awake yet.”

Jenna cheered. “I don’t like knowing about your sex life but I’m so proud of you!”

There was a grumble from the bedroom. “He’s awake now, I gotta go. Love you,” he said, and walked back to the bedroom.

Tyler smiled at him, eyes barely open. “Morning,” he murmured, and Josh could hardly hear him but he was smiling back anyway.

“You look real comfy.”

Tyler nodded and rubbed his face into the pillow. “Can’t cook but can take you out to breakfast. A place… few streets away. Good pastries. Coffee.” Josh watched fondly as he forced his eyes open and rolled out of the bed, not even looking as he pulled clothes out of his drawer, using his hands to feel for an acceptable outfit.

Josh laughed at him. “Yeah, I’m down,” he said, and glanced down at his dirty clothes. It would be clear they were having post-sex breakfast, but whatever. It was Josh’s day off and at least he would be eating with Tyler. It’d be kind of like a date.

By the time Tyler was dressed, he seemed more awake, enough to notice Josh’s state. “Oh. We must be the same size, right? You can borrow some clothes, and I think I have a spare toothbrush somewhere,” he said, motioning to the drawers. “I’ll go look for a toothbrush while you’re getting changed.”

All of Josh’s serious relationships in the past had been with women a good few inches shorter than him. He was used to lending his clothes to the people he was dating, but not borrowing clothes from others. And, yeah, Josh was no fool, they weren’t dating, but sharing clothes was intimate. It was casual and trusting and surrounding yourself in your partner’s smell.

“Thanks,” he said as Tyler left the room, and tried to find some clothes that he could wear. There were a few pairs of leggings and flowery tops which weren’t the sort of thing Josh would feel confident wearing, but he found a grey tank top and some black skinny jeans which fit him just fine, even if it felt weird wearing Tyler’s clothes. They didn’t use the same detergent, but Tyler’s smelt better than Josh’s clean clothes. Fresh and floral.

Tyler came back in as he finished pulling the tank top over his head and handed him a toothbrush, still in its packet. “Here ya go, we can go out whenever you’re done,” he said, and Josh nodded.

In the bathroom, he texted Jenna with, _‘im borrowing his clothes and hes taking me out for breakfast. kinda gay’_. She texted back three winky faces, so he pocketed his phone and cleaned himself up.

The walk to the patisserie was short, and they stayed shoulder-to-shoulder, bumping and grinning at each other. Josh didn’t know what this was- too many times he had tried to go down relationship lane with a guy and ended up taking a wrong turn onto casual avenue- but man, he hoped it was brewing into something real. Josh knew nothing about him apart from his great dick and his even better dancing, but Josh got a sense from him that they could be something. That they could click.

They ate French pastries that Josh couldn’t pronounce and drank nice coffee, and it was strangely romantic. It was sweet, natural, and Josh wanted to stop himself from hoping that it would turn into a relationship. In his experience, anyone who he screwed before going on a date with wouldn’t grow into something more, it would always stay as sex and nothing else. Yeah, this could be different, but he wanted to keep his feelings safe.

Tyler was good at talking. He was easy to laugh with, and noticed when Josh started to run out of things to say or to panic, knew when to take over. He didn’t interrupt, except for when he broke out into laughter in the middle of Josh talking, or to crack a joke, but he would suggest what Josh might be trying to say when he started pausing and losing his train of thought.

Tyler was doing all the things Josh wanted him to do, wanted a potential boyfriend to do. Taking him out on dates and giving him casual touches on his hand or arm and dealing with his anxiety as if it was normal.

If Josh was a real, functioning adult, he would ask Tyler as they were leaving, _‘Hey, was this like, a date, or just breakfast?’_ and if he was lucky Tyler would say it was a date, and if he wasn’t lucky Tyler would look awkward and say it was breakfast. But Josh was not a real, functioning adult, he was a child posing as a twenty-eight-year-old man. Okay, maybe that was unfair; he had landed himself a job as an architect and he had friends and hobbies and stuff, but talking was hard. Relationships were hard. Questions were hard.

Josh finished his coffee and said he had to be getting back home, and Tyler nodded, and said, “Oh, yeah, of course! I’ve been keeping you for ages,” and Josh said he liked it, and Tyler gave him a quick hug before he left.

Later, without Tyler there, and with there Jenna to give him disbelieving looks when he doubted himself, it became easier to realise that it was unlikely Tyler was doing all of this for sex. Because he had jumped off the stage to run and give Josh his number, and let him stay overnight, and lent him clothes, and taken him for breakfast. Those were nice things to do. Those were not sexual thing. Those were let’s-date-maybe things, and that was what Josh wanted.

  


* * *

  


They texted most days, dumb things like bands they liked and getting stressed by work and awkward stories and pictures of themselves when they were bored. Neither of them suggested another date, because Tyler was busy finishing the last few shows of Romeo and Juliet, and Josh was trying to make one of his clients stop changing her mind about whether she wanted fountains.

It was perhaps possible that Josh had been searching up videos and pictures of Tyler dancing, his svelte frame, pink lips, strong legs. Josh might end up thinking about Tyler too much, and composing texts in his mind that asked Tyler when he’d be free. He didn’t even get far enough to type them out then delete them.

It was Josh’s day off and a mix of stress from his latest client, staying up late to catch up with a TV show, and not caring had resulted in him looking like a complete mess. His hair was too messy to be cool, even when he tucked it under a beanie, there was day-old eyeliner which had smudged to make his eyes look more tired, and he was wearing a crumpled t-shirt and sweatpants. A mess that didn’t even pretend to be anything else.

To top it off, he was walking back from a food run and had decided, frick it, he was going to get two large coffees for himself. Who cared? Not Josh. He spent too much money on them to care about what people might think when they saw him, sitting alone with his two coffees.

When he was thinking things like that, Josh couldn’t even blame the universe for deciding to prove him wrong.

He hadn’t even made his way to a chair when he turned and saw none other than Tyler Joseph, scrolling through his phone and looking beautiful. Tyler Joseph was a man who had probably had a shower that morning, who had put some effort into styling his hair, and managed to look cute in anything he wore. He was a man who had far more control of his life than Josh could dream of.

Tyler looked up from his phone, bored and thoughtful, and saw Josh, who looked tired and gross and was obviously staring straight at Tyler.

“Josh!” Tyler called, all precious and excited.

“Ty,” Josh said, smiling back at him. Tyler pocketed his phone got out of his chair to walk over to Josh.

“I was just thinking about when you’d be free,” Tyler told him, and seemed to notice the two bags of shopping Josh had hanging around his wrist, because coffee took priority over shopping bags. “Lemme get those for you.”

Josh ended up handing over the bags, because Tyler was being sweet and Josh was bad at saying no. “Oh, man, thanks. You were thinking about me?” he asked, and at some point, they had started walking, so they were in step with each other, making their way out of the cafe.

Tyler looked ahead of himself instead of towards Josh. “I mean, like, we text a bunch,” he said. He was all cute and embarrassed now, and Josh was pleased Tyler didn’t know how much Josh had been thinking about him. “Anyway, what’ve you been doing? Sorry I didn’t reply, it was last night of the show and we had a celebration.”

Josh shrugged and almost spilt some coffee on himself, taking a sip to try to lower the risk. “Uh, architect stuff. Video games. Drums. That kinda stuff.”

Tyler looked at him as though these were interesting things, and opened his mouth before he glanced down at the coffees. “Oh, man, were you doing something? Did I like, pull you away from someone?” he asked, and Josh was familiar with that guilty panic.

“Oh, dude, no! It’s fine. I, uh, I was just real tired so I was like, y’know what? I’m gonna get myself two coffees. And I spent almost eight dollars or something.”

Tyler relaxed and laughed. “I respect that. I respect a man who does what he wants.” Josh had heard somewhere that people laughed more when they liked someone, and decided it must be true because he couldn’t seem to resist laughing at any dumb thing Tyler said.

They carried on talking the whole way to Josh’s apartment, and when they stopped in front of the door, Tyler seemed to realise where they were.

“Oh! I’ll leave now, sorry for holding you up. I liked seeing you again,” he said, taking a few steps back. Josh had finished one and a half of his coffees, so he had free hands to hold the bags Tyler was offering to him. This was the most polite guy Josh had met.

“Uh, I mean, you could come in? It’s not like I have anything planned.” That last part seemed unnecessary, because no one would look at the complete disaster that he was presenting as and think, _‘That’s a man who has places to go, people to talk to.’_ They’d look at him and think he had forgotten to shower, which was almost correct. It was a choice, not a mistake.

Josh had to kiss him, tentative, when he looked so damn happy about it. “Yeah! I could do that,” Tyler agreed, dopey, and Josh wasn’t sure whether it was a good or a bad thing when they started making out as soon as Josh had put down the shopping bags and his near-empty coffee in the kitchen.

They ended up in Josh’s bed, and no matter how good a lay Tyler was, he wanted more. Because having sex with Tyler was good, it was great, but Josh wasn’t looking for a hookup anymore, and Josh liked to think he was old and mature enough to stop letting men use him for sex, most of all when he had feelings for them. Not love, but a lame crush. The type that had him thinking about him too much, finding a thrill in each touch, grinning too wide every time they spoke.

Tyler was a great guy. He was kind and funny and easy to talk to and, yeah, some of the best dick Josh had ever gotten, but Josh was no longer the sort of guy who would let himself suffer.

“Ty?” he said, and Tyler was a little sleepy, resting his head on Josh’s chest and running his hands across Josh’s pecs as he hummed to himself.

“Yeah?”

“I need to shower,” he said, and wished that for once he could say what he felt without getting stressed out and avoiding it.

Tyler wrinkled his nose and nodded. “Same, dude.”

“Uh. Wanna like, save water?” Josh asked, and prayed that his face didn’t express his total exhaustion with the way his mouth betrayed him every single day.

Tyler gave him a sly look. “Shower together? Isn’t that a little gay?”

“Well, I didn’t suck your dick for nothing,” he said, and Tyler laughed with his whole body.

Tyler pushed himself out of Josh’s bed and stretched. “Yeah, sure, let’s do it. Let’s save the planet.” He was still laughing to himself.

  


* * *

  


The shower was nice. A little awkward at points, but not enough to make him regret it. They didn’t have sex in the shower, maybe influenced by Josh blurting out his fear of shower sex or falling over in the shower, but Tyler seemed to find it funny rather than presumptuous or offensive.

The clothes Josh had borrowed from Tyler hadn’t been washed yet, so he let Tyler wear some of his clothes, and seeing Tyler sitting on his couch, wearing some sweatpants and an old hoodie of Josh’s which he had picked out for himself, watching TV with a drink cradled between his palms- well, it was a domestic scene.

“Your clothes are in the washing machine now,” he said, and sat next to Tyler. The couch was dipped by Tyler’s weight, so he ended up leaning on him, but neither moved.

It was only early evening, and Josh took a deep breath, because he would ask this time.

“Uh, Tyler?” he asked, and his voice must sound nervous enough to betray the oncoming conversation, because Tyler muted the TV.

“Yeah?”

“Y’know, uh. I can’t do casual right now. With all of this stuff.” He gestured between them, to clear up what ‘all of this stuff’ was. “So, like, if you’re not looking for a relationship then I think that we should stop.” There. That was Josh Dun, an adult, discussing his feelings.

Tyler looked panicked. “Of course I wanna date you!” he said, and seemed to realise that he sounded a bit desperate. He cleared his throat. “I mean. Um, I thought you wouldn’t wanna date because. Well, y’know. But I wanted to ask you on a date. I was thinking about it when I saw you in the cafe.”

As great as it was to hear he had a chance with Tyler, he remained cautious. “I know what?” he asked, because he had no idea what it was about him which made him seem like a guy not looking for a relationship. Was it a dig at how he had looked when they had bumped into each other earlier?

“Wh- oh! No, I meant like. You’re outta my league?” He looked embarrassed when he was made to explain it.

Josh was amazed. “You’re a professional dancer. You’re like, on posters and everything. Jenna showed me videos of you before we met because she wanted me to see how good you were, and I thought you looked real hot. And, uh. Leagues are dumb,” he said. Which, yeah, was true. Leagues were dumb and mainly applied in high school and when people were putting themselves down, but Josh had definitely been thinking that Tyler was out of his league right up until he looked all abashed about not thinking he was good enough for Josh. What a thought.

“She did?” He looked shocked by that, but didn’t need any confirmation from Josh before he continued with, “Oh, man, that’s so cool. She dances, right?”

Josh nodded. “Yeah, she teaches and she’s in a bunch of shows.” Josh went to see every one of her shows, alongside Mark and anyone else who was done with putting up with Josh going on about how good she was, and had decided to check her out for themselves. No one had been disappointed by her yet.

“Dang, that’s cool. I’d love to see her dance sometime. Maybe we could do a duet,” he said, and he said it like he was thinking to himself about fun weekend plans, not like he wanted to do a fan a favour.

Josh grinned. “She’d love that. I’ll introduce you two sometime.”

Tyler cuddled closer into Josh, and he could see how Tyler tucked his nose against Josh and enjoyed his smell. “Sounds great. But date first,” he said, and it was too early to sleep and too late to nap, but Tyler didn’t seem to care, and Josh was tired. He hadn’t slept much.

“Date first.”

They fell asleep on the couch and they’d wake up aching and too groggy to get a real night of sleep, but Josh was fine to deal with the consequences to avoid disturbing Tyler and the bubble of calm he had lured Josh into.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for reading this venting of my Thirst i love n appreciate u all a lot. if u noticed the brief and p obscure dodie clark reference, i respect u


End file.
